Most of the chatter about this coal state is that it's recalcitrant when it comes to acting on climate change. And while some of that skepticism is certainly valid, there's lots happening in Bluegrass Country when it comes to green energy.

If you were to look at my past and present passports, you'd see a host of nations stamped on it that the White House has historically considered an adversary, an "axis of evil" state, or a security threat.

We already have many of the technologies needed to fight super pollutants. Given how harmful these super pollutants are on our environment, it only makes sense to use these existing technologies to reduce our emissions and slow climate change before it is too late.

The time is now to change the way we police America before hundreds of thousands of more pieces of military gear go to main streets across America. The face of America is changing quickly. Let's make sure it's not for the worse.

Now should be the time when Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama aggressively propose confidence-building measures, not mete out more military muster. This will get us nowhere fast.

News that the Pentagon is sending its military back into Somalia, after 20 years, shows that America is still missing the point on the Horn of Africa when it comes to preventing violence. Has the Defense Department learned that little in its many misadventures on the African continent?

All the reasons are there for an increase in minimum wage. It's good for the economy. It's good for workers and for business. It's good for social mobility, and it's good for the American Dream. What a patriotic policy, then, and how fitting for the nation's capital to consider it. Let's hope D.C. implements it and soon.

How would the NRA, who suggested after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut that we provide armed guards in every school across America, at a cost of nearly $8 billion per year, respond to New Jersey's shooting?

What we say, do, and eat has global implications, and on these three major security frontiers we must do better: religious, food and climate security. Each of us has a role to play, and each of us is capable of making a difference.

We know from the countless stories of many marginalized American communities -- from LGBT communities to Latino immigrants -- that bullying is practiced, promulgated and promoted in America. Why are we so good at it?

Discrimination and prejudice is quite possible in the U.S. and it seems ever apparent in all things arguably related to Fethullah Gulen. America should be welcoming a Muslim scholar promoting secular education, science, tolerance and nonviolence -- not castigating him.

On Syria, there is a back-story from which the US should learn, lest it be repeated again. For years, long before the killing by President Bashar al-Assad's government began, the US preferred a policy with Damascus of disengagement. It is unclear why the White House pursued this.